Butt Kicking Mud Wrestling Carp

I had an appointment to get the oil changed in the truck this morning. Well - on the way back home, I just happen to pass a well known carp hole. Since I was in the area... I figured I should let my inner redneck shineYou can see the mud puffs in the middle of this pictures. There are carp feeding at the upstream end (left side) of the puffs. Yeah you - I got your number!!! Lots of people use the C&O Trail as a part of their running path. Little do they know that there are a bunch of mud wrestling beasts just hanging out waiting to kick some butt! Well - I got my butt kicked - but I was using a tenkara rod to even up the odds. I got the carp to take the Montana Hybrid fly (awesome fly by the way - google it if you are interested) and as I set the hook, I started looking for a place to get down the embankment... should have thought about that before I cast the fly. I got the fish turned a couple of times and they it bolted and took the tippet with it. I lost a good fly - the carp got a new "lip piercing". You win some, you lose some! I walked around a bit looking for more carp - they were there - I'll have to come back with a 6 wt (so I can use 2X tippet and win the wrestling match). This was the first time I had been to the Lock 7 area when the leaves were not filled in. You could see all the accesses to the other cuts. I tried walking through some of the brush last year and got hit by poison "something growing in the weeds" - I had flashbacks of the bad itchy scratchies. I just got hypochondriatic heebee jeebees...

Carping Saturday

I drove down the the C&O Canal this morning to spend a couple of hours chasing the carp that live there. I used the Daiwa 43MF Kiyose rod and brought this 17" (nearly - hey it isn't a fish story if you don't stretch the "tape" a little) to hand. A few minutes after I let it go, I hooked into a much bigger carp - during the fight it used a quick change of direction against me to break the lilian off the tip of my rod - that was it for carping today. Waiting for the takes, getting to see the carp inhale the fly and setting the hook are in the group of events where time stands still - like surfing a barrel, the apex of a big air kite jump or jumping off a high rock face into a pool of water below - definitely adrenaline producing! With my heavyweight rod out of commission (for now) I started walking back and I took out the Nissin Fine Mode Seiryu rod I have and cast a blue popper - I got some takes from the sunfish lining the banks of the canal - they don't start the adrenaline pumps the same way big carp do, but they are enjoyable nonetheless. Fishing for carp may not seem glamorous or a noble pursuit - but it is a BLAST!!!

Flyfishing the C&O Canal in Georgetown

La had made arrangements to meet with an old friend down in Georgetown this past Friday evening. Knowing the C&O Canal was right there by the parking garage, I brought along a tenkara rod and some flies. When we got there, a few sunnies were showing topside. The water was pretty clouded, but that's typical for the C&O near it's beginning point. I hooked into two - and I had to work hard for them, not what I'm accustomed to when it comes to sunfish. Fun session in the middle of the Nation's Capital - although a carp would have been the ticket (next time).